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Topic: How important is to have a tent with a large vestibule/ (Read 1639 times)

Hi everyone, I currently own a light tunnel tent but I was thinking of buying a larger one since I have a longer trip coming up; I read many different opinions on other forums about having a large vestibule, some say it is heavy and useless and some say they would not travel without a large vestibule; I was hoping this subject could be a bit more developped on this more forum with more sepcific examples;Diego

I'm not sure, but I have always had a tent with a "west wing" and would not travel without.

- You got a dry space - Place to store you panniers- More space to move about in *)- A changing room (from wet to dry) so that you don't soak your wet clothing, sleeping bag etc.- A place to cook out of the wind- A place to sit out of the wind or rain.- You can dry things in that space.

Though this does mean, for most tents, that you have to carry a ground sheet **). Which will add weight and take space, but it all depends on what kinda touring you do.

We do like comfort, so we do carry more than most.

*) Since a three man tent is not big enough for the two of us, and no we are not that big. We will knee/elbow each others if we both try to move about in the tent alone.**) Can also be used to picnic/sleep/eat on if the ground is wet when you are not using the tent.

Hello,My girlfriend and me are now traveling with the Vaude Space III Light. It is an (too) expensive tent, but we got it for half price. Anyway, the point here is that it has two doors, both with a vestibule big enough to put four panniers and a pair of shoes. We find this arrangement very confortable.Myself, when I travel alone, like going really light. I would not carry a heavy tent just because of the vestibule. Just a place to leave my shoes is enough. In my experience it doesn't rain a lot in the world. Even now on our tour in the UK we never had to cook in the rain in 2 months. When it rains you almost always find some kind of shelter. Only for a tour in very wet areas, like Carretera Austral, West Coast New Zealand, westcoast Norway or rain season in the tropics I would consider a vestibule. But would you really buy a new tent for that?Peter

@DTW- Why not take 2 sheets of Tyvek/house wrap: one for your ground cloth and one to fashion a vestibule?I attach mine to tent with binder clips. I haven't found anything lighter or more durable than the Tyvek for these functions -- just a great accessory for bike camping.